InfyTalkhttp://www.infosysblogs.com/infytalk/
We now have a space where Infosys talks the walk, lets you engage with stakeholders in shaping perspectives on Building Tomorrow’s Enterprise. Powerful waves of change have created new opportunities and IT is inextricably linked to these emerging trends which is what Infy Talk will showcase.enCopyright 2017Wed, 09 Aug 2017 12:25:00 +0000http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=5.14-enhttp://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rssLightning Speed E-commerce

Think about the last time you needed to access a service. Perhaps it was to pay a utility bill, pick an internet and phone package, choose an insurance plan, or place an order with your favorite retailer. It's very likely that on each of these occasions you simply reached for that do-it-in-a-minute app on your smartphone. When your employees, partners and customers need to access services or assets within the enterprise ecosystem, would you be surprised if they too instinctively reached for their smartphones? Like you, they too are accustomed to the convenience, speed, addictive ease, and ubiquity of mobile. And that's not all they're counting on.

As customers switch channels, they expect to receive the same quality of user experience they've always associated with your brand. Anything short of that frustrates them - even leading them to bail on a transaction or intended purchase. That's why, beyond the mobile-first approach, it's important to make sure that the experience your brand delivers is uniquely compelling and yet unfailingly consistent throughout a multi-event, multi-channel journey. And why not, if that's what it takes to keep your customers coming back for more, and the competition at bay? The challenge then is around executing a strategy that delivers on this vision.

Digital technologies continue to disrupt every business as we know it. In response, IT service providers must first help clients navigate the disruption to future-proof their business, innovate, and grow. Then, they must do the same for themselves. From a conventional services and applications provider to a problem-finder, strategic advisor and innovator of next-generation services, the role of the IT service provider has irrevocably changed.

Technologies for smart automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are fuelling this change in the way IT services are delivered. The implementation of these technologies is resulting in pervasive automation, moving the industry away from the conventional 'people only' IT services delivery model to a much more powerful 'people plus software' model to deliver these essential services.

In the foreseeable future, autonomous vehicles (AV) - drones and self-driving cars- will be the major mode of transportation, and facilitate access to a number of allied services. For instance, imagine receiving your products within minutes of placing the order. The AV industry is expected to grow to $126.8 billion by 2027.

Autonomous vehicles drive with the aid of the Internet or a wireless network, using in-vehicle technologies such as sensors, radar, LIDAR (light radar), lasers, cameras, and GPS, to steer, navigate and brake. Data generated or accessed by the AVs is usually stored on a cloud platform. As technology gets smarter, autonomous vehicles will play an increasingly important role in industries such as logistics, where they will simplify fleet management, optimize delivery routes and enable asset tracking. One will also find AVs in industries such as mining, retail, healthcare, and hospitality.

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http://www.infosysblogs.com/infytalk/2017/07/are_autonomous_vehicles_going_places_anytime_soon.htmlNext-gen TechnologiesFri, 28 Jul 2017 06:33:00 +0000Smart Contracts: Introducing A Transparent Way To Do Business

Enterprises, irrespective of size or industry, are supported by written contracts. Unfortunately, these are often cumbersome and a source of business and legal conflict. A solution can be found in replacing traditional contracts with smart ones. A smart contract is an agreement, in the form of a computer program that is executed automatically once certain pre-programmed conditions are satisfied. On blockchain, the goal of a smart contract is to simplify business and trade between both anonymous and identified parties, sometimes without the need for a middleman. A smart contract scales down on formality and costs associated with traditional methods, without compromising on authenticity and credibility.

While debates and discussions across forums are focusing on automation, costs reduction and job loss - the inevitable throes of massive transformation - we at Infosys believe in taking a deeper perspective, and rather look at the future that will be born out of this change. There are significant roles that stakeholders across the spectrum, from government, to academics, to businesses and non-profits, can play in collaborating to shape the skills and competencies needed to be successful. Infosys' strong tradition of learning and education has equipped us to adopt this approach of always looking forward to the innovations and skills of the future, and at the same time, has created a culture of lifelong learning, where every opportunity is new and provides growth.

We believe the future need not be an increment of our past or present - and this time around, it could be a significant shift. The exponential rise of computing power at fraction of the cost, as well as rapid miniaturization of hardware that can correspondingly support this, are fundamentally making all of this possible - bringing about the onset of the age of automation and AI.

Make to learn: Building your first robot
[Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGOWaKmQ51U]

The World Economic Forum predicts five million jobs will be automated by 2020 (The Future of Jobs, Employment, Skills and Workforce Strategy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, 2016). Furthermore, research by Frey and Osborne (2013) predicts, 47 percent of the total jobs in the US are in the high-risk category and could be automated or computerized within the next 20 years. Some of the facts, figures, predictions, as well as Hollywood productions (Westworld, Transcendence, Interstellar), have many of us fearful of the impact of artificial intelligence on the future. However, never underestimate the power of human potential.

The debate about technology impacting work is one that goes back hundreds of years. In 1776, Adam Smith wrote 'The Wealth of Nations' in which he described the division of labor - a separation of different tasks for different people in order to improve efficiency (1776). During the (first) Industrial Revolution (1760-1820), jobs were being 'automated'. Productivity increased with the invention of the steam engine and by allocating specialized tasks to workers. Now, one can only imagine the fear in the 1800s of "what will happen to me with this new technical advancement?" But indeed, society survived and even thrived. In the Second Industrial Revolution (1870-1914), the railroad, telegraph and machine tools were invented. In 1930, John Maynard Keynes noted, "The increase of technical efficiency has been taking place faster than we can deal with the problem of labor absorption" (Keynes, 1933). Keynes predicted "widespread technological unemployment due to our discovery of means of economizing the use of labor outrunning the pace at which we can find new uses for labor".

The Internet of Things (IoT) is becoming the superstructure of modern life. But before we can truly harness its many opportunities, we will have to address its challenges. Machina Research, global advisors on machine-to-machine, the IoT and Big Data, predicts that by 2025, there will be 27 billion connected devices, and the IoT will be worth $3 trillion in revenue.

What will the data generated from all these devices mean to an enterprise? Well, at its best, it could mean an opportunity to reimagine every process in order to optimize costs and resources at every level, and develop new products and services, which may have not yet been imagined. Behind the exciting possibilities of IoT is a mammoth task, when one considers the quantity of data to be analyzed, and the corresponding computing power needed.

Building a sustainable ecosystem for our stakeholders through a responsible enterprise has been part of our ethos since inception. This led us to launch the Infosys Foundation in 1996. Since then, the Foundation has worked tirelessly for over two decades to contribute to education, healthcare, rural development, destitute care, and art and culture.

In 2008, we formally launched our Sustainability Policy and committed to the United Nations to become carbon neutral by FY 2018. We pledged to do this by reducing our per capita electricity consumption by 50%, focusing on renewables as our principal source of energy, and reducing our carbon emissions. In 2014, we became the first IT Company in the world to publish a sustainability report in accordance with the (Global Reporting Initiative) GRI G4 (comprehensive) criteria. The Global Reporting Initiative is the world's most widely used standard on sustainability reporting and disclosure. It is adopted by over ninety percent of the corporations when reporting on their sustainability performance.

The WannaCry virus attack wreaked havoc in mid-May as it hit over 200,000 computers world-wide. The virus affected computers in 150 countries across North America, Europe and Asia, and the attack was the largest ransomware delivery campaign till date.

The National Health Service (NHS) in the UK was affected. Critical medical procedures had to be postponed, hospitals were unable to admit patients, and ambulances had to be diverted to other hospitals. Doctors had to briefly go back to pen and paper. In China, college and university students found their data encrypted by the virus. In Germany, the railway was affected, as was one of the largest mobile companies in Spain, Telephonica. The virus made its way to numerous other industries and businesses around the world.

Many enterprises fail to capitalize on the potential that artificial intelligence and automation have to offer by equating it with labor substitution. For instance, I was recently interacting with the client team of a large bank. Their target was to reduce costs of internal and customer transactions by implementing 500-600 Robotic Process Automation (RPA) bots in a single year. They had already tried doing this with a toolset they had invested in, but were unable to meet the target. A few questions on overall process design revealed that they had not really thought through their plan. For instance, they had identified 50 use cases for immediate automation since these had a large number of people associated with them. However, the company did not know how to systematically identify new problem opportunities in the enterprise. I encountered a similar situation in a large manufacturer that was looking at IT outsourcing. They were keen to learn how artificial intelligence (AI) could help them automate work drivers and outsource the rest of the work. A retail customer, on the other hand, had already implemented RPA but needed assistance to leverage AI to respond to evolving consumer expectations.

Consistently engaging in problem finding can be a struggle for enterprises, especially if they do not refer to the data existing within the enterprise. Many of today's enterprises find themselves overwhelmed by data. Unlocking the right data and making it available across the board gives users the opportunity to engage with stakeholders in a more meaningful way than ever before.

Sustainability burst onto the scene ~10 years ago as the price of oil shot past $100 per barrel and the discussion on CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere moved from science labs to the board rooms. The increased dialogue on the environmental impacts of business was a positive development. However, the core tenet of sustainability - optimizing usage of resources - has always been about minimizing costs and maximizing financial performance.

Today, the explosion of data powered by the proliferation of smart sensors, or the Internet of Things, has rapidly raised the competitive bar. It is no longer enough for companies to add insulation to their factory walls and plant gardens on their roofs. To win, they must also embrace big data in a way that stiches together fragmented, custom e-commerce orders with reactive, optimized supply chains and factory production.

I recently caught up with Anna, a regional manager of a leading retail brand. Over coffee, our conversation steered towards the mounting pressure on retailers to focus on extracting insights to improve in-store experiences for customers. Today's shoppers - the millennials, aging baby boomers and the general affluent population - seek personalization, convenience, accessibility as well as 'shareable' experiences'. It is common knowledge that retailers need to know their customers as individuals, not by segments or even by micro-segments, to provide truly personalized service. One example is Under Armour, the popular fitness and sportswear brand. They created a host of apps, MapMyFitness to track every run, walk, hike, and gym session of a user. Endomondo motivates a user and enables them to reach their goals. And to back this up they also have MyFitnessPal, a food diary and nutrition tracker. With thousands of fitness-conscious users of these apps, Under Armour gathers huge quantities of data on their users habits and wellness lifecycle to personalize their offerings to each apparel customer.

Anna had a question: 'How do we focus on customers while addressing operational challenges?' Let me share what I told her.

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http://www.infosysblogs.com/infytalk/2017/05/the_new_challenge_for_retailers_delivering_online_conveneince.htmlDigitalTue, 30 May 2017 04:20:58 +0000Role of Empathetic Problem Finding in the Digital Age

When I read about all the fantastic innovations being developed across the world, I sometimes wonder if someday we will run out of relevant problems to solve. However, what if we shift our perspective a bit and instead start looking for more relevant, deeper problems to solve - rather than creating solutions to apparent problems? If we consider the scale of digitization and disintermediation today, this is likely to play an important role in our brave new world. For instance, millions of jobs in industries like retail, banking, financial services, logistics, transportation and public services will be automated over the next decade. Should our concern be to locate other industries that will require this surplus manpower, or should we consider how to redefine our concept of 'remunerable work'?

Uber is known the world over as a taxi-hailing app. And while offering us great service, the company also reshaped the logistics industry as they found a larger requirement it could help address. This led them to launch services using which parents could book a ride to have their children picked up and dropped to a destination. Or, shoppers could have their groceries dropped to their homes. Uber has tied up with mega event organizers in cities to simplify travel for attendees, and more recently, it has ventured into the food delivery industry. Uber discovered problem finding as a means to expand its services.

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http://www.infosysblogs.com/infytalk/2017/05/role_of_empathetic_problem_finding_in_the_digital_age.htmlDigitalTue, 23 May 2017 14:49:26 +0000Skills of the Future - Asking Us to Be More

Recent discussions in the media and business circles on automation − robotics and artificial intelligence − have again turned the spotlight on the future of work and employable skills. And while there is widespread apprehension about skills obsolescence, I believe these concerns can be addressed. One of the biggest and often overlooked benefits of automation is that it almost compels us to awaken our sense of curiosity and inquiry, pushes us to reskill, and adopt a path of lifelong learning − to whatever extent we can.

A report published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) titled 'Future of Jobs', points to the need of the hour. It notes that by 2020 there will be a change in the kind of skills required in the digitally enabled services economy. Skills such as complex problem solving, critical thinking, and creativity will be most in demand.

Following a whirlwind phase of annual and quarterly results, clients meetings, and setting up new operations, I cannot wait to be at Infosys Confluence, our thought leadership summit for clients, prospects, and market influencers. Like every year, this gathering pushes the pause button on my hectic schedule - offering a Zen-like stillness, if you will, to ideate, introspect and envision with some of the best minds across industries. This time the theme, 'Unlimit', will add a new dimension to this pause. Exchanging thoughts on unlimiting our innate human potential, empowered by technology; unlimiting traditional boundaries of industries; unlimiting from that past that is baggage.

Pondering on the theme, I realize how 'Unlimit' is actually the core force driving successful digital-native organizations today. Here's an example. A Swedish startup, Mapillary, built their database of 130 million images through crowdsourcing. Mapillary Vistas Dataset calls itself "the largest and most diverse database for object recognition on street-level imagery" and offers its data to organizations that need to train their AI systems. Its creators want to represent the whole world (not only streets) with photos sourced through crowdsourcing.